[Legal Fish]

Another way to attract players with trials, especially from the Xbox360 console, would be randomly give 5 to 10 free passes every or every other Friday for people who subscribe to the service/contest. Each pass lasts 30 days. You got the excitement factor there.

Not exactly trial, but being able to download the game and buy content IDs(of main game and expansion) from the Xbox360 marketplace and Playonline would be a good idea.

[favian]

there's a ton of good ideas, yours included. its just odd that square hasnt exploited any of these ideas to get more users in north america. unless they are just happy being #1 in japan.

[IfritnoItazura]

favian,

I made educated GUESSES at S-E's reasons for deeming free-trial a bad idea. (It would be silly to assume they've never thought of it.) You can argue they are bad/good reasons all day long, but as Icemage said, the only opinion which matters is S-E's.

By the way, I would consider 20% subscription an immense success from any kind of trial. Heck, even 5% would be more than good enough to order deluxe sushi bento boxes and premium sake for the entire team.

Seriously, with the starter experience S-E has programmed, though, I would be surprised if more than 1% of free trial downloaders ever subscribe.

About the only saving grace of the beginner experience in FFXI is that if you just shout politely in-game "Excuse me, I'm new to FFXI, would anyone mind showing me the basics for a few minutes?", there would most likely be multiple offers to help. That, is the the best feature of FFXI--the community.

Of course, good luck to newbies on figuring out how to shout... Or, even figure out what is "shout"...

(Believe it or not, as grouchy as I sound, even I have shown half-a-dozen random, brand new players around, taking an hour or more sometimes. I actually want MORE people running around in the game, but the first few hurdles too high for most new players.)

[Murphie]

IfritnoItazura, how is that experience any different from someone who purchased the game and is exploring during their first 30 days?

[Raydeus]

I seriously doubt anyone can truly experience XI in less than a month though, so maybe like others have said SE doesn't have a trial simply because they realize it would do more harm than good since it takes more time to get into the the game than it does in other MMOGs.

(And giving away 30-day trials wouldn't be good unless they had a separate trial server which would be even more pointless)


Although that still doesn't explain why you have to buy the discs from a retailer instead of being able to purchase it online and simply download it. :/

[Murphie]

You can't truly experience any of the MMOs that have a trial version. But that's ok, because a trial version is supposed to just give you a taste. If 30 days isn't enough to grab someone, then SE is already in trouble, since buying the game gives customers a free 30 days at the start. If by the end of that someone isn't grabbed, why on earth should they start paying for it?

[Raydeus]

Yep you are right, so knowing XI a 10 day trial wouldn't be enough, 30 days is plenty of time though but I doubt SE would be willing to give that much time unless they have a good reason to do so.

Like for instance the player having other friends also playing (which seems to be the reason behind the buddy pass).

So it really seems like SE doesn't want to waste resources on players with such a low chance of actually staying, they simply let the franchaise and company name (and the active players) to do the recruitment instead.

[Murphie]

I still like Icemage and BRP's ideas. I don't see why Buddy Passes couldn't be a little bit more accessible for people who might want to try the game out. It's not hurting anyone, and could possibly bring in more business.

[Celeal]

Speaking of free trial, did S-E offers free-beta for Xbox360 before the Xbox360 retail version exists? Well, beta is different from trial, anyway... back to the topic~

I would agree that with the current content at beginner levels, it would be hard to attract new players with 14 days trail. I think friends and community in FFXI is one of the key factors that drives players to continue the game.

Maybe it is smart for S-E to make 14 days trial verison of FFXI too. In reality, I doubt S-E has any plan for distributing trial version anytime soon.

[Murphie]

So if I understand most folks here correctly, this game is nigh impossible to start, and it's only through some sort of miracle that players continue to play after their initial 30 days that they get with their purchase.

[Raydeus]

Originally Posted by Murphie

So if I understand most folks here correctly, this game is nigh impossible to start, and it's only through some sort of miracle that players continue to play after their initial 30 days that they get with their purchase.

Yep, that's pretty much it.


Just kidding, more like 10-14 days isn't enough time (unless players have plenty of time to play that is) because even though XI was very interesting to me (being my first MMOG and all) I gotta say it's just too slowpaced for such a short trial time.

But I don't think XI is almost impossible to start at all, it just takes more time.

In my case I don't think I left Basty-Gustaberg till around day 15 or so, but I've always had limited time to play so other players could be able to see much more content in the same amount of time...so I dunno. o.O

Edit > 30 days is plenty of time though.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by Murphie

So if I understand most folks here correctly, this game is nigh impossible to start, and it's only through some sort of miracle that players continue to play after their initial 30 days that they get with their purchase.

Well duh, you can find that out from any discussion here about new users. The only way that anyone here kept playing was because we were all born knowing how the game worked.

[Murphie]

Lucky us. So glad I got that FFXI memory implant in my teens.

[favian]

By the sounds of it, a 30 day trial is more appropiate than a 14 day trial. Some people here subscribe to the idea that even the first thirty days can scare away newbies, i can only imagine the 'success rate' of a 14 day trial would be.

30 days it should be. course i have no real input on it.

update: 5 hours left for the dvd torrent to finish, but who knows since torrents typically fluctuate in speeds.

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Murphie

IfritnoItazura, how is that experience any different from someone who purchased the game and is exploring during their first 30 days?

I guess I didn't make my point well enough...

If you get something (item, game, etc) for free in an impersonal manner (e.g. not a gift from someone you care about): You try it, found it to be confusing/difficult to use, you toss it. No sense of attachment; "I got it for free, so no big deal."

However, if the same confusing/difficult item/game is given as a gift from someone you care about (i.e Icemage's extended buddy pass idea), OR, if you have invested substantial effort in getting the item (e.g. paid nontrivial amount of money for it, enter an essay context to win it, whatever), you will feel more attached. Therefore, you would be more inclined to figure out how to make it work.

May sound counter intuitive, but "free" makes it less likely someone playing it will subscribe. It some ways, it cheapens the value of FFXI in the mind of the player, even if the actual play experience is identical to that of a paying customer. On the flip side, downloadable free trials will also reach wider audience, so on the whole should bring in more long term customers.

It comes down to how the expense of hosting, bandwidth, additional software engineering, customer support, etc. compare with the expected revenue such an endeavor would genearte. The FFXI dev team's goal isn't to get as many customer as possible--it's to make as much money as possible within the resource allocated by S-E.

Whether on the balance a free, downloadable trial version would make more money for S-E or not, is something they obviously decided as "No", after so many years without offering one.

Does that mean the FFXI dev team would never offer one? Well, if they can find a scenario in which making free trial available would earn them more money than costing them--and, convince S-E's management to give them the resource to implement it--sure. If anything, they have already invested substantially to make their payment/accounting system for PlayOnline more flexible, making it very likely the backend can support different length free/trial subscription.